First vaccine shipment expected this week

COLFAX — Whitman County expects to receive its first doses of the COVID-19 vaccine this week.

Gov. Jay Inslee said the first shipment arrived in the state Dec. 14; the first in line for vaccinations are health care workers (Phase 1a), the elderly in long-term care centers and American Indian communities.

“Everything is moving pretty fast,” county Interim Public Health Director Chris Skidmore said.

The first shipment is the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine. It is a two-dose vaccine, with the second dose administered 21 days after the first. It has been authorization by the FDA for anyone 16 yea...